Old Home Week. And Downham

I've always maintained that the best place to "run into people" is in the temple.  This week was glorious for that!  On Tuesday as I was ushering a lady and her husband (along with others) into a room in the temple, she stopped and just looked at me until I recognized her back - the Mathesons from our dear Grandview Hill neighborhood were in "our" temple!  They are nearing the end of their 2-year mission as Mental Health Specialists over ALL of Europe.  The chances of me being right there when they came in are so small! 

(Don't worry - the picture was taken in a room located before the recommend desk!

While I was still floating from that lovely interaction I started chatting with a fellow temple worker while we folded clothes.  It took only five minutes to find out that she had been taught the Gospel in the Czech Republic by Aaron Robison, from our ward in Provo!

A few minutes later I asked a new temple worker about herself, and come to find out she served with Jessie in her mission!

This next one is bizarre!  Craig and I were in a position to be with a young man as he went through the temple in preparation for his mission.  Not only is he going to Barcelona (where our brother-in-law, Merril, is the Mission President) but when he was chatting with Craig and found out he was from Provo he said, "Do you know Jessie Dayton?"  Honestly - what are the chances???  He had been in Provo with his family a couple weeks before and watched the BYU Ballroom Dancers and met her.  He even showed Craig a picture he had taken with her to show Merril. Crazy!!!

We wanted to share another story from a Church History site that we visited.  After Heber C. Kimball had spent a few weeks of his mission in Preston, he headed to a village named Downham.  Everyone told the brethren not to waste their time there since the people were not interested in religion.  Undaunted, Elder Kimball and a few others went to Downham and ended up baptizing over 600!.  We visited Downham with the Cooks, and since all those converts left for "Zion" after getting baptized, there are no members there, but it is the sweetest little village.  They have not allowed for any visible signs of progress since the 1800s except for a paved road, and it is the most delightful place either of us have been.  It is tiny, but they graciously receive a lot of visitors from the Church, and there is a special feeling there.  It was a little overcast the day we went (it is England, after all!) but still so gorgeous!

 

Every scene in the village looks like this

When Queen Victoria visited Downham, she said there was no prettier site from a Church doorway (which is where the camera was for this picture)  in all of England than this.